Eric Rousselle discusses the current state of open badges, highlighting positive statistics from Open Badge Factory showing growth in customer organizations and badge issuance. He notes that while badges are a disruptive tool for recognizing learning, challenges remain regarding credibility, collaboration, and the role of badge earners. To enhance the effectiveness of open badges, he emphasizes the need for understanding community needs, integrated solutions, collaboration, recognition, and ecosystem comprehension.

1. Eric Rousselle
Chief Innovation Officer
Discendum
Reflections on the future of Open
Badges

2. Open Badge Factory provides the
tools that organisations need to
create, issue and manage their
badges.
A personal badge repository as well
as a community space where badge
earners can receive and share their
badges and connect using them.

3. Where are we now with
badges?

4. Open Badge Factory’s statistics
show positive development
• Associations (40%), schools and universities (50%), businesses
(10%)
• Increasing number of customer organisations (100% growth)
• Increasing number of badges created and issued
• Better reception rate of badges (average 48%)
• About 95% of customers renew their OBF subscription
• Successful user stories
• Emerging small badge ecosystems

5. Open Badges is still an emerging
concept with a small impact on the
way we recognise learning today.
Why?

6. Some obvious reasons
• OB is a disruptive concept and a transformation tool challenging
and questioning the way we recognise learning.
• Trust is still a challenging question in contexts where recognition
of learning is the monopole of official bodies. (What is the
credibility of badges?)
• Developing meaningful badge ecosystems requires collaboration
and it can be challenging. (At least it take time)
• Organisation and creator centric approach and development.
• Badge earners are often placed in a role of passive recipients.
• Do badges we create and issue meet the expectation or at least
needs of the badge earners?

7. How to get the Open Badges concept to
fly?

8. Badging is context / community “sensitive”

9. Towards successful badge
strategies
• Understand the needs (better understanding of your context and
community)
• We should think badges as an “integrated solution” (as a service)
to support and improve processes (HR, employability, staff
engagement, etc.)
• Engage and collaborate (co-creation of badges, badges as
connectors, etc.)
• Recognise and trust (endorsement, peer assessment, etc.)
• Understand ecosystems (interaction logic between stakeholders)

10. Thank
You
eric.rousselle@discendum.com
+358 400 587 373
openbadgefactory.com